Irish company Mainstream Renewable Power has signed a deal with Chinese wind turbine manufacturer Sinovel Wind Group, which will lead to 1,000MW of wind energy projects being built in Ireland over the next five years.
Under the terms of the deal, Mainstream will develop and construct the projects, with Sinovel providing the technology.
Mainstream recently opened an office in Beijing, where it is actively pursuing relationships with leading Chinese technology suppliers looking to access its portfolio of projects across Europe, the Americas and Africa.
“China is central to Mainstream’s strategy. Right now we’re developing over 16,000 megawatts of projects around the world, and Chinese suppliers are looking to deploy their technologies in the markets in which we’re operating,” said Mainstream managing director Eddie O’Connor.
“This is our second deal with a leading Chinese wind-energy company in six months and for us it is just the beginning. We have the global portfolio of projects, they (Sinovel) have the world-leading technology which is ready to deploy cost-effectively and at scale. It’s a great fit. And a deal like this has the potential to bring substantial manufacturing opportunities to markets like Ireland.”
Sinovel’s senior vice-president Lecheng Li said the first of the projects in Ireland as part of the deal would go into construction later this year.
“We plan to supply Mainstream with a steady flow of turbines through 2012 and 2013, reaching an average of 250MW per annum from 2014 onwards. As we gain certainty on project execution schedules we will review our plans for localising operation and maintenance activities, as well as possible component manufacturing.”
